Receding hopes for press freedom in Tunisia

Many journalists believed that media freedoms, which were virtually
nonexistent under former President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, would grow after
his ouster. During the aftermath of the December 2010 uprising, an independent
press blossomed
and special commissions were set up to reform the media sector. But since the elected
government took office nine months ago, the tide has slowly reversed.

Over the past several months, the government appointed
a series of new heads of media outlets, including state radio, print, and
television establishments. The National Union of Tunisian Journalists denounced
the government's move as an attempt by the authorities to place their
sympathizers in powerful positions in order to control state-run media
coverage--a tactic
also used by Egypt's new government.

"The government is trying to exercise its control over the country's
media establishments," said Kamel Labidi, former CPJ consultant, veteran
journalist, and human rights defender. Labidi told me that the government
appointed these individuals not based on any media experience or criteria, but
because of their alignment with the ruling Ennahda party.

Labidi led the National Authority to Reform Information and
Communication, a body tasked with reforming the media sector after the
revolution. In July, Labidi and the rest of the commission resigned due to the
government's lack of commitment to press freedom. Among the reasons for his
resignation were draft amendments proposed by a minor political party to the
November 2011 Decree 115 of the new press code. The code, which is supposed to ensure
freedom of press, has been approved by parliament but not yet implemented.
The proposed amendments
would introduce jail time for insulting saced icons and public figures, among
other restrictions.

The most recent of the government appointments, in August, was that of
Lotfi Touati, a former police commissioner and well-known government
sympathizer, as head of the iconic Dar Assabah media group, the oldest media
house in the country, established in 1951. Touati's appointment stirred much
controversy among Tunisian journalists. On September 11, Dar Assabah
journalists and other employees went on strike
to protest his appointment. In 2009, Touati was accused of leading a
government-orchestrated takeover of the leadership of the National Union of
Journalists, according to news reports.

Days after his appointment, Touati censored
an article that was to be published in one of Dar Assabah's dailies criticizing
his appointment, according to news reports. He also fired one of the three top
editors at the Arabic-language daily Assabah and published a limited list of
people authorized to write editorials, the reports said.

More disturbingly, on September 13, a car driven by Touati struck Khalil
Hannachi, a reporter for Assabah, according to news reports. Hannachi was
outside the Dar Assabah headquarters in the capital, Tunis, waiting to confront
Touati about recent decisions he had made regarding the media group and its
newspapers, news reports said.

News accounts citing a witness reported
that Touati started his car and "moved ahead at full speed." The journalist
lost consciousness and was taken to a local hospital, as shown in an amateur video
circulating on YouTube after the incident. He sustained bruises on his head and
has not regained full hearing, Assia Atrous, a reporter for Assabah, told me.

When I spoke to Atrous last week, she was attending a protest in front
of the constituent assembly calling for an investigation of Touati. Atrous said
the government has not taken any real steps to investigate the incident, although
the Interior Ministry acknowledged it had received conflicting statements about
the collision, according to news reports. Ministry spokesman Khaled Tarrouche said
that Touati claimed the journalist "intentionally threw himself in front of the
car," while Hannachi "claimed he was deliberately hit."

Naziha Ghodbeni, a journalist with Dar Assabah, told the news website Magharebia
that the government was using the media group as "its mouthpiece to perpetuate
its presence by shining its image and deceiving the public opinion about its
false achievements."

With these actions, journalists are reminded of the former regime's
repressive tactics, and that is not the direction Tunisia should be heading
three months away from the second anniversary of the revolution.

UPDATE:
This blog was modified to reflect the correct date of the Tunisian uprising.

CPJ Middle East and North Africa Research Associate Dahlia El Zein, a Lebanese native who grew up in Cairo, received her master’s degree in Arab studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C. She speaks Arabic fluently and has traveled widely in the Middle East.